Supporting Berwick young people to hone creative skills

In early 2025, 11 young people from Berwick developed their skills as artists, through a new project funded by Create Berwick.

Create a Space was designed to celebrate the creativity of neurodivergent young people in the town. We spoke to one of the project team, Alex Sayers, to find out more about Create a Space’s impact on the young people who took part, the creative professionals who devised the project, and on Berwick itself.

Exploring new artforms

Create a Space was a creative arts project designed for neurodivergent young people in and around Berwick. It was devised by a small group of creative practitioners and facilitators, including parents and carers who knew first hand that there wasn’t a great deal of provision here for creative young people who are also neurodiverse.

We ran weekly creative sessions, exploring a different aspect of creativity each time. Together the group experimented with printmaking, collage, collaborative making, knitting, watercolour, gouache and more, and the project culminated in a showcase of everyone’s artwork.

New skills – for participants and the project team

Create a Space was co-created with young people. Right from the start, we appointed two youth consultants who helped design the project – this meant that everything from the artforms we explored through to the structure of each weekly session was based on what the young people themselves were interested in. The consultants worked with us on marketing materials, planning and evaluation, so they gained a whole range of new skills.

During the six weeks, the young people led some of the sessions themselves. For example, one member of the group is an amazing knitter so she demonstrated that for everyone. Everyone developed their own portfolio of work to take away, showing what they’d learnt and how they’d put their own stamp on different artforms.

And as creative practitioners, we learnt a lot as well. The young people shared ideas, led activities and shared their knowledge and ideas as much as the project team did. There was skill-sharing between all of us.

Working in partnership with The Straw Yard

The weekly sessions took place at The Straw Yard which is part of Berwick’s historic town walls and barracks.

This was about more than just hiring a space, it was about providing a safe, comfortable environment, and The Straw Yard was perfect. Being there was a new experience for most of the group so we provided information about the venue and photos in advance and Ollie, who is associate director at the Straw Yard, gave everyone a tour of the space.

From most of the group never having visited there before, they ended up feeling a real ownership of the space.

Building a creative community

Create a Space was about giving these young people space and time to explore their own creativity, and it was also about building a creative community.

Over the weeks, we saw friendships develop and young people’s confidence grow. The group developed a collective identity that was based on creativity and collaboration. Some who may not have seen themselves as ‘creative’ before the project shifted their perspective on this by the end.

One carer said, “Create A Space has given [my young person] the opportunity to make friends with other creative young people who live locally.”

Leaving a legacy for Berwick

These six weeks showed how important it is to have opportunities for young people in and around Berwick to be creative. There is already incredible creative resource within the town, including artists and creative practitioners who live and work here. For the group to feel a part of that and contributing towards that was really special.

These young people are naturally creative and we gave them the chance to explore what they were most interested in. They learnt new skills to feel confident about their own abilities. We talked about how they might like to incorporate creativity into their lives in the future, whether that’s through a job in a creative field or in everyday life.

One carer said, “As a creative individual in a SEND sixth form she does not get so many creative opportunities … having contact with creative people and processes made her visibly happy.”

In the future, we hope to build on the Create a Space model, to develop longer-term, creative opportunities for neurodivergent young people in Berwick, with co-design at the centre of our work.

Overall, it was such a joy, from co-designing the project with our youth consultants, to working together as a project team, to being at the weekly sessions and seeing the group develop.

So far, Create Berwick’s Creative Action Fund has awarded more than £110,000 of grants to support the creative and cultural sector in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Find out more about the fund here.

Create Berwick is a culture-led regeneration programme that aims to make Berwick one of the most distinctive, must-see cultural destinations in the country by investing in the arts, creativity and culture. Create Berwick is a designated Culture and Creative Zone (CCZ) and funded by the North East Combined Authority and Northumberland County Council.